22/05/2018
Sailing OR Episode 8-Paradise Found
I recently had the absolute pleasure of sharing our water world with a good friend from the Midwest. My friend Paula came down for a visit from Cleveland, Ohio and I had the opportunity to share all of our floating toys. We hadn’t seen each other in 20 years and it was a wonderfully special opportunity to share all that I love about my life with a dear friend who hadn’t yet experienced any of it. The first day she was here she arrived in the morning which gave us the time to play all afternoon on the water. She had never tried a stand-up paddleboard so we headed to the beach with two paddleboards and a kid-sized kayak. SUPping takes a bit of practice and provides an excellent core workout, whether you are ready for it or not. We paddled to a waterfront restaurant for lunch and Chaz did an amazing job with his teeny tiny kayak. He is building his endurance, mostly by practicing in our pool, though he still usually ends his water adventure being towed behind my paddleboard (extra core workout for SuperMom). Fortunately, I didn’t wear out my friend and after lunch we slowly paddled back to our launch site, enjoying the surrounding. Paula managed to stand up for a while, too. I’m so proud of her!!
After we got home, we gathered supper supplies and headed out to OR. Time to introduce the newest addition! We picked up Mom and away we went. What another perfect night to take her out. The sunset was gorgeous and down it went too fast, as always. I took us out to Pensacola Bay and we were joined by a small fleet of other sailboats and a whole herd of fishing vessels returning to their berths. A few dolphins were out and a small number of mullet danced out of the water. Supper consisted of a rotisserie chicken and assorted fruit, one of my favorites to take on the water as it is so easy. The Littles played below, they had discovered Daddy’s glow-in-the-dark fishing lures and had a blast making up games with them. I was crazy nervous when we returned to the dock, I’m still not comfortable with putting her away, but we returned OR to her berth without incident. Paula started sailing regularly about three years ago and picked up racing about one year ago. Her primary vessels have been monohulls, which we won’t hold against her. My mother spent a couple decades on the water, primarily on catamarans. I was glad to have all of our years of sailing experience on board. I docked her again without any insurance claims!!
The next morning, after a lovely hike in Naval Live Oaks Nature Preserve we headed out on Charlie’s fishing boat to set crab traps. The blue crabs in our waters are absolutely delicious and Paula loves crab. There aren’t so many blue crabs in Lake Erie so I felt it was important to showcase our local cuisine for her. We were ready to place seven traps when we reached our hunting grounds but the chicken was still one large frozen lump of poultry from the freezer. So we took a detour under the bridge to check out the start of the Sea Bouy Regatta in the Bay. What timing! It was wonderful to see those beautiful monohulls start together, their spins out on a reach. They were carrying them rather high but those lovely sails were doing their job. There was a large handful of good friends out and we cruised near them to say, “Hi”. Part of me wanted to be on the way to the Sea Bouy with them, another part of me was looking forward to the many adventures we were still planning to have that day. After sending our friends off to the horizon over the Gulf of Mexico we returned to our traps and set all seven. Beware blue crabs!
We still had plenty of time before the sun went down and the wind was picking up. Mom was available to watch the Littles so Paula and I launched the Cat and headed back out on the waves to the West. Oh, what bliss to be on the water with no obligations. On our little Hobie Wave I have no chores. No wood to oil, no head to clean, no food to cook, and today no children to look after. We sailed for about three hours, laughing and chatting the whole way. Paula drove part of the way and when I took the tiller it was incredibly relaxing. Sailing our little cat is about as natural to me as walking. When we finally returned to the launch the sun and the wind were both headed down, a quiet end to an amazing day.
We hit the Sound in the morning to check our crab traps and found that four of them had been robbed by some lazy jerk. Chaz taught Paula how to tell the difference between the he-crabs, the she-crabs, and the pregnant she-crabs and we ended up with nine crabs in the cooler. We reset our four that had been emptied and took our haul back home. The next challenge of the day was to open up these little jewel boxes. In retrospect we would have saved a lot of time and I would have had a lot fewer cuts on my hands had we taken a moment or two to watch YouTube. Unfortunately, there was a storm coming in and my brother-in-law’s graduation party was that afternoon. A flathead screwdriver and a pair of pliers later we had nine crabs manhandled open and on ice. Our sweet morsels would have to wait until we adequately celebrated my BIL’s accomplishment. Congratulations, Jack! They ended up being a bedtime snack, best one ever!
The last day Paula stayed with us we again headed out to check the traps. We found we had a nice big Jimmy and a cute little girl. Had it been just our little family I would have let them go but I wanted to give Paula all that she had come to the Gulf coast to find. So in the pot they went and we had a lunch feast of 2 crabs, homemade guacamole, fresh flounder and all the trimmings. Lordy, we eat well around here! We spent our last afternoon together on land and it felt a bit weird, too stable for my tastes. Mom and I took Paula to Ft. Pickens where we walked on the beach and were graced with the flight of a school of manta rays, hunting in the surf. How graceful they are, gliding together in formation as the waves brought them so close to the strand. A light rain kept most of the beach traffic down and cooled our tour of the Fort. As our visit concluded I realized again how fortunate we are and how grateful I am to live on our beautiful Gulf Coast, with its bountiful waters and wonderful recreation. Our world here is so amazing and special and I love to share it with our friends. Thank you for again for joining us on the ride and please “like” and “share” if you enjoy our story. See you in two weeks!
